All of the material in this patent application is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. As of the first effective filing date of the present application, this material is protected as unpublished material.
However, permission to copy this material is hereby granted to the extent that the copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentation or patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
This invention generally relates to the field of emergency telecommunication devices, and more particularly to an automatic dialing device for medical response personnel.
The availability of both private and public pools continues to grow. Pools offer therapeutic outlets from heat and humidity, water activities such as sports, and exercise to many people. As the availability of pools and the use of pools increase, so does the attendant risk of drowning accidents.
Although many owners and users of pools may be active with the American Red Cross to obtain necessary water safety training, there are many people without specialized training for victims of drowning accidents such as CPR and first aid. In fact most private owners of pools, pools in condominiums and many business owners of pools either let their certification for specialized pool training expire or are unaware of the lack of preparation and protection. The results of a pool accident are both personal and economic. Accordingly, there exists a need for a product that provides both the physical and economic protection against pool accidents.
Insurance coverage for hotels, Inns and motels often covers pools. It is common during the underwriting process for the question to arise, xe2x80x9cIs there a pool?xe2x80x9d An affirmative response to this question may preclude the underwriter from accepting the entire risk because the swimming pool is considered such an exposure to liability and wrongful death. In the more favorable situations there is a surcharge to the liability premium of several hundred or thousand dollars based on the specifics of the exposure. The basis of the concern is the number of times the plaintiffs"" bar has used xe2x80x9cfailure to provide access to emergency equipment or lack of protectionxe2x80x9d as a pleading in a wrongful death or serious injury case. Very few commercial establishments have the budget to provide full-time credentialed water safety staff. The alternative is to post a xe2x80x9cNO LIFEGUARD, SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISKxe2x80x9d sign. However, many times, in recent law suits, warnings are not enough to have the owners and operators of hotels and motels avoid being held liable for compensatory and in exceptional cases punitive damages. In fact, it is common for the plaintiff""s bar to accuse the property operator that either no telephone was available or that the person wishing to render aid had to stay on the phone, if one was available, but in either case they were not able to render immediate first aid because of the delay in contacting emergency services. Most hotels and motels have an internal phone system, which must run through the switchboard. If the front desk is busy and unable to answer an internal call for several minutes the damage to a drowning victim becomes exponential.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system to mitigate these problems and to provide a system that provides a defense against the pleadings by the plaintiffs"" bar that improper or insufficient security devices were available to the invited guests thereby creating an unsafe environment for the invited guest.
Almost daily there is news coverage from television and newspaper about infant drownings or near-drowning accidents. One of the more sorrowful recent stories was of a mother who found her infant at the bottom of a pool and not knowing how to handle the situation, ran to a neighbor""s house for assistance. The delay in looking for assistance led to the untimely death of the infant. A need exists for a device that instantly connects the mother with a trained professional who guides her through the rescue and life saving steps. The problem is obviously becoming a serious concern to the general public as a Florida State Representative, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston is pressing for legislation that would mandate safety equipment for pools. According to an article in the Sun Sentinel dated Mar. 19, 2000, Florida ranks third in the nation in drownings. They also state that drowning is the leading cause of death among children younger than 4 in Florida. Unfortunately, most people do not know the proper emergency measures to be taken in a drowning incident. Accordingly, a need exists for a device to provide step-by-step assistance from trained personnel instantly to a caller.
Florida is home to one of the largest population of retirees in the United States. Those retirees may be easily confused and suffer from lack of agility as a consequence of aging. In an emergency situation involving an elderly individual and elderly rescuer the lack of knowledge combined with lack of direction can have fatal results. Most people of any age are familiar with the manual pull fire stations. There is no operational order to the activation other than pull the lever. A need exists for an emergency device that is as easy to use. If an emergency should occur poolside there is no need for the rescuer, to search for a phone, relay information on the calling location or remember where they happen to be at the moment. A device is needed that provides step-by-step instruction from a trained professional instantly.
Although other emergency telecommunication devices exist, none offer the same features and capabilities of the present invention. For example, one such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,452 entitled xe2x80x9cEmergency Telecommunication Devicexe2x80x9d with inventor Eric E. Bertolet. This device does not provide a simple method to operate such as one button dialing and direct connection to trained emergency personnel. Moreover, this device will not operate correctly in a pool-side environment where enhanced audio pickup is needed for distances often as great as 25 feet from the emergency device. Accordingly, a need exists to overcome this problem.
The system disclosed herein is being marketed under the name xe2x80x9cLifeguardxe2x80x9d. The system is an emergency telecommunications device that works with existing telephone lines to provide a continuous hands-free remote speaker, with built-in microphone sensitivity to allow rescuers to use the device from a far distance. The rescuers can attend to the accident victim while being instructed and communicating with emergency personnel to speak and be heard while attending to the accident victim. The system allows activation with a pull or push of an activation mechanism, an automatic connection to EMS identifying the calling station as a drowning case and hands free two way communication between the person requesting assistance and the EMS station allowing the person activating the system to start first aid or receive instructions from a professional on the actions to be taken to mitigate threat to life.
In one embodiment, the system is microprocessor-based, enabling it to be easily adapted to specific operating requirements, which include incoming call-no answer; incoming call-auto answer; incoming call-manual answer; and outgoing call-panic mode. Further, the system operates in a stand-alone mode or networked with additional units to create a seamless coverage area. The system provides an instantaneous conduit between trained medical professionals and on-scene care givers. xe2x80x9cLifeguardxe2x80x9d eliminates precious life-saving moments between the medical emergency and the medical treatment which is paramount in regards to victim survivability.